Summer School Safety Planning: 11 Lessons Shared by School Safety Leaders
Explore 11 summer school safety considerations, including staffing, emergency preparedness, transportation, threat assessment, access control, and facility use.
The end of the regular school year doesn't mean the end of school safety planning.
During a recent NCSSD member roundtable discussion, school safety leaders shared the operational challenges they encounter during summer programs and the strategies they're using to address them.
While every district's approach is different, participants agreed on one thing: summer school should be treated as a continuation of the regular school year, with the same commitment to safety, preparedness, and communication. The following considerations reflect the topics members most frequently discussed as they prepared for summer programs.
1. Summer School Locations
Where summer school is held can have a major impact on safety operations.
Members discussed several common models:
- Consolidating students into one or two campuses for staffing efficiency
- Using multiple locations to keep rival student groups separated
- Organizing by grade level
- Adjusting locations based on staffing, budget, or community concerns
Some districts found that consolidating students created more behavioral and security issues, especially when students from rival schools or neighborhoods were combined. Others reported that while using multiple locations significantly reduced student conflict, it required more resources.
Site decisions ultimately shape how everything else operates.
2. Security Staffing and Law Enforcement
Summer staffing often looks very different than during the school year. Participants discussed common challenges, including:
- Fewer available SROs
- Police staffing shortages
- Officers reassigned to patrol
- Reduced budgets
- Shared or roving security coverage
Some districts said they are legally required to maintain officer coverage during summer instruction while others struggle to secure consistent support.
Members emphasized that summer staffing gaps can quickly create larger vulnerabilities if not addressed early.
3. Emergency Drills and Summer Preparedness
Several members emphasized the importance of not overlooking emergency drills during summer school operations.
Participants noted that summer students may be unfamiliar with the building and emergency procedures, making preparedness efforts especially important. At the same time, members recognized that compressed schedules and limited instructional time can make it challenging to incorporate drills into summer programming.
One member shared an incident where a nearby shooting occurred during summer programming. Some classrooms initiated a lockdown after hearing the shots while others continued normal activity because they didn't hear anything. At the same time, rotating administrators were unaware of what was happening. The situation showed how quickly communication and training gaps can surface when staff aren't fully aligned.
4. Staff Orientation and Building Familiarity
Summer school often places staff members in unfamiliar buildings or roles. Common concerns included:
- Not knowing rally points
- Limited knowledge of intercom systems
- Confusion around emergency procedures
- Administrative turnover
- Lack of site familiarity
Regarding the previously mentioned incident, some of the confusion stemmed from staff not knowing how to initiate or communicate a lockdown or not being familiar with how their specific building operated.
Members largely agreed that even experienced staff can struggle if they're placed in a new environment without proper orientation.
5. Emergency Plans, Communications, and Continuity
Members also discussed the importance of reviewing emergency operations plans before summer programs begin. Participants noted that summer school often involves different administrators, modified schedules, temporary staff, and changes to building usage. As a result, districts may need to update emergency contacts, communication procedures, staffing assignments, and response responsibilities to reflect summer operations.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of reviewing radio procedures, notification protocols, and emergency communications processes. Several members emphasized that staffing changes can create unexpected gaps if security alerts, emergency notifications, or incident reports are routed to personnel who are not working during the summer.
6. Hard Corners and Safe Refuge Areas
Lockdown preparedness remains an issue in many districts. Participants found that many staff members still misunderstand:
- Proper safe refuge positioning
- Door sightlines
- Room-specific hard corners
- Visual indicators
Some districts discovered through surveys and walkthroughs that teachers believed they were in a safe location when they were still visible from the doorway.
To address this, members shared simple visual tools that have been more effective than traditional training alone, including:
- Ceiling-mounted string or bright cord marking safe zones
- Lines or markers on ceilings instead of floors
- Wall or corner decals
- Classroom diagrams showing safe areas
- Furniture placement to block visibility from doors and windows
Several members noted that floor tape often becomes damaged during cleaning or creates unnecessary visual stress for students, while ceiling-based markers tend to be more durable, less disruptive, and easier for staff to reference.
The discussion reinforced that simple, highly visible tools can significantly improve staff understanding and response.
7. Student IDs, Bag Policies, and Entry Procedures
Some members noted that summer school can sometimes lead to relaxed policy enforcement, even when those policies were put in place for a reason. Those included:
- Reduced ID use
- Looser bag restrictions
- Inconsistent access control
- Less formal screening
One member shared that before stricter bag policies were implemented, most weapons incidents involved firearms brought in through bags. After the policy was enforced, a later incident involved a firearm carried in a waistband.
The big takeaway wasn't that the policy failed but that behaviors adapt and consistent enforcement still matters.
8. Transportation and Bus Security
Transportation created some of the biggest operational concerns for members. Challenges included:
- Neighborhood transportation hubs
- Difficulty verifying riders
- Unsupervised downtime
- Mixed student populations
- Schedule gaps
One district described using centralized hubs to transport students from multiple high schools. Because staff couldn't verify who was boarding buses, it created a major blind spot.
Following an off-campus incident near a summer school site, there was initial concern that the individual involved may have boarded a school bus. While that wasn't the case, it highlighted how quickly uncertainty can escalate.
Members also noted that mismatched bus schedules can leave students unsupervised, creating additional risk.
9. Maintaining Threat Assessment and Reporting Processes
Members also emphasized that behavioral threat assessment and reporting processes should remain active throughout the summer. Even when schools operate on shortened schedules or with reduced staffing, members stressed the importance of maintaining reporting pathways, communication procedures, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
Summer programs may involve students who require additional support, making it critical that concerns continue to be identified, documented, and addressed using established processes.
10. Community Use of Facilities
Schools are often not the only occupants of a building during the summer. Members described a range of scenarios, including:
- Camps
- Public pool access
- Community rentals
- Outside organizations using classrooms or gyms
These overlapping uses can introduce confusion around who is allowed where, especially when outside groups are unfamiliar with school safety procedures.
In one case, a district opened part of a school building to the public during the day, which required adding cameras, visitor management checkpoints, and communication tools to maintain visibility and control.
Others noted that when outside groups aren't clearly separated from student areas, it becomes much harder to manage access and respond to emergencies.
11. Higher Education and Private School Considerations
Members from higher education and private school settings shared a different set of challenges, many of which center around culture and expectations.
Open campuses, decentralized schedules, and faculty autonomy can make it difficult to implement consistent security practices. Some members described resistance to lockdown drills or broader preparedness efforts, especially in environments where safety measures are perceived as disruptive or unnecessary.
Rather than pushing large-scale changes all at once, several participants found success by starting smaller, building relationships with faculty, and gradually introducing safety expectations.
The biggest takeaway was that in these environments, progress often comes from consistency and relationship-building over time.
Free Subscriber Download: Summer School Safety Planning Worksheet & Checklist
Turn these planning considerations into action with a practical worksheet and checklist developed from discussions among NCSSD members. Use it to review staffing, emergency preparedness, communications, transportation, threat assessment, access control, facility use, and first responder coordination before summer programs begin.
More Summer School Safety Resources
NCSSD Members Share Summer School Safety Strategies During the ZeroNow Webinar
Hear three NCSSD members discuss how their districts approach summer staffing, construction projects, transportation, emergency preparedness, and other operational challenges during summer programs.
Webinar Transcript (Subscribers Only)
Prefer to read or revisit a specific topic? Access the complete webinar transcript for additional practitioner insights and real-world examples.